30 years later, battle goes on

Stabbing victim fights attacker's parole bid

Nearly 30 years ago, Mary Leen was stabbed more than a dozen times in an Oak Lawn hotel room where she worked as a maid.

Her attacker left her for dead back then and has held her hostage ever since, she said Tuesday during an Illinois Parole Board hearing for the man convicted of the crime.

Maurice Childs first became eligible for parole in 1986, and Leen and her family members have testified before the board nearly every year to protest his petitions to be set free.

Every time, they relive the horrific night of Nov. 6, 1976.

"I begged him," Leen told a parole board hearing officer at Oak Lawn Village Hall. "I tried to stay calm. I told him I was pregnant, that I was married, anything to give me time to run."

Childs stabbed Leen 15 times that night. Leen, then 19, was a maid at the hotel earning money for college.

Her mother, Betty Leen, who has gathered petition signatures over the years to keep Childs behind bars, said it was a miracle her daughter survived. Five of the stab wounds were potentially fatal, including one to her heart, she said.

"Mary was saved for a reason," her mother said.

Childs was convicted of attempted murder, and the judge who heard the case in 1978 sentenced him to 50 to 75 years in prison. But under Illinois law at the time, Childs was eligible for parole in 1986.

Reportedly a model prisoner, he has petitioned for parole nearly ever year since.

"It was a horrible incident and he meant to kill Mary Leen," said former Oak Lawn Police Chief Frank Gilbert, who joined other local and state officials at the hearing to protest Childs' petition. "And if we weren't here today, he may have been free to kill more and more."

Hearing officer Jesse Madison said the Illinois Prisoner Review Board is likely to make a decision after Childs has a hearing in Downstate Jacksonville, where he is incarcerated.

Eight members of the 15-member board must approve Child's petition.

On occasion, Childs has come within a single vote of gaining freedom, records show.

Childs, 51, is tentatively slated for release in 2009, but Leen and her family said prison officials should follow the advice of the trial judge, who said he should not be freed until he is too old to commit a similar crime.